Monday, July 4, 2016

Saudi soccer crisis: A microcosm of what reform means for the kingdom

A match fixing scandal and a financial crisis in Saudi
soccer provide a microcosm of the daunting task and pitfalls involved in Deputy Crown
Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s plans to reform and diversify the kingdom’s oil
dependent economy, streamline its governance, and upgrade its autocracy.

The Saud Arabian Football Federation’s handling of the
scandal and the crisis offer a glimpse of how the government and the ruling Al
Saud family hope to root out corruption, introduce a degree of transparency,
and cater to the aspirations of a young population without surrendering
absolute political control.

Cleaning up soccer, the kingdom’s most popular sport,
further serves to achieve the goals of greater international competitiveness
and engagement by Saudis in exercise that were spelled out in Prince Mohammed’s
Vision 2030, a framework for economic and social reform announced last April.

Sources close to the federation say 1st League
soccer club Al Mojze FC could become the first team in Saudi football history
to be relegated as a result of match fixing. Based in the city of Al-Majma'ah, Al
Mojze, which graduated from the 3rd to the 1st League in
a mere two years, is suspected of having achieved its success through match
fixing.

“Something is wrong. They have no experience and no
important players. They have no super talent,” said a source close to the
federation.

The relegation would nullify Al Mojze’s graduation to the
Saudi Professional or Abdul Latif Jameel League, the country’s top division, as
a result of its winning of the 1st League. It would follow the relegation
three years ago of two handball teams, Al Safa FC and Mudhar HC, the first ever
in the kingdom’s sports history.

It would also send a message that the kingdom is serious
about enhancing competitiveness and fighting corruption in a soccer sector in
which members of the ruling family allegedly would interfere with referees and
management when clubs were not performing to their liking.

Acting firmly against Al Mojze was made easier by the fact
that the club is neither owned nor sponsored by a member of the ruling Al Saud
family.

To its credit, the federation did not spare clubs associated
with the family when it recently published in advance of the new soccer season a
schedule for clubs to pay off their debts. The federation also imposed a ban on
the hiring of foreign players.

Included in the schedule were Al Ahli Saudi FC which is
linked to Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdullah, Al Hilal FC that is headed by
Prince Nawaf bin Saad, Al Shabab FC that falls under the auspices of Prince
Khaled Bin Sultan and Al Nasser FC which is headed by Prince Faisal bin Turki bin
Nasser.

Sources close to the federation noted that the schedule
listed for Al Nasser only $453,400 in debts to the soccer association even
though the club’s total debt is asserted to be approximately $70 million. If
correct, it would make Al Nasser Saud Arabia’s most indebted club after Al
Ittihad FC, which owes $76 million. Al Ahli’s total debt was listed at $40
million, Al Hilal’s at $36.5 million and Al Shabab at $19.4 million.

“The game of football played by all sports clubs in Saudi Arabia
is just like the competition between the business enterprises in which each
football club tries to become the best team in the country and hence gain name,
fame and superiority over other clubs, or rather say superiority over other
princes who are behind the rival clubs,” wrote Sharaf Sabri in a book published
more than a decade ago, The House of Saud in Commerce: A Study of Royal
Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Sabri put his finger on the problem the federation is likely
to have in cleaning up the kingdom’s premier soccer league. It is a problem
Crown Prince Mohammed is likely to encounter in restructuring an economy in
which members of the ruling family have a finger in many pies and may not want
to see their perks compromised.

A Facebook page entitled Nasrawi Revolution demanded in 2013
the resignation as head of Al Nasser of Prince Faisal, a burly nephew of the
late King Abdullah who sports a moustache and chin hair. A You Tube video
captured Prince Faisal seemingly being pelted and chanted against as he rushed
off the soccer pitch after rudely shoving a security official aside.

The campaign against Prince Faisal followed the
unprecedented resignation in 2012 of Prince Nawaf bin Feisal as head of the
Saudi Football Federation (SFF), the first royal to be persuaded by public
pressure step down in a region where monarchical control of the sport is seen
as politically important.

Prince Nawaf’s resignation led to the election of a
commoner, storied former player Ahmed Eid Alharbi, who is widely viewed as a
reformer and proponent of women’s soccer.

The resignation of Prince Nawaf and the campaign against
Prince Faisal gained added significance in a nation in which the results of
premier league clubs associated with various members of the kingdom’s secretive
royal family are seen as a barometer of their relative status, particularly at
a time that its septuagenarian and octogenarian leaders have initiated a
generational transition and are seeking to restructure the economy and recast
the social contract without granting political concessions.

“The Saudis are extremely worried. Soccer clubs rather than
the mosque are likely to be the centre of any revolution. Kids go more to
stadiums than to mosques. They are not religious, they are not ruled by
religious dogma,” said Washington-based Saudi dissident Ali al-Ahmad, who heads
the Gulf Institute.

Mr. Al-Ahmad was referring to the power of clerics preaching
Wahhabism, the puritan interpretation of Islam developed by 18th century preacher
Mohammed ibn Abdul Al-Wahhab. Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family established
the kingdom with the help of the Wahhabis who in return were granted the right
to ensure that their views would dominate public life.

Similarly, the federation’s ban on the hiring of foreign
talent came as Prince Mohammed was seeking to force employers to replace
foreign labour with Saudi nationals. The effort that predates last year’s
accession to the throne of King Salman and the instalment of Prince Mohammed as
one of the kingdom’s most powerful men provoked soccer opposition already in
late 2014.

Clubs resisted the application of a quota system to soccer
and warned that it would put them at a disadvantage in international
competitions. The problem of Saudi clubs was compounded by the kingdom’s
reluctance to encourage Saudi players to garner experience by playing abroad
for foreign clubs.

Saudi Arabia has long had a complex relationship with soccer
because it evokes passions similar to those sparked by religion. Saudi clerics
rolled out mobile mosques during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in an
effort to persuade fans gathered in cafes to watch matches to observe
obligatory prayer times.

A senior Saudi soccer executive highlighted a key Saudi
soccer problem, saying that “we are funded by the government to serve the
country.” With oil prices strongly reduced, Saudi Arabia, like other countries
is seeking to cut costs and control spending, making less money available to
soccer clubs.

Equally importantly, serving the country in Saudi Arabia
means the government’s desire to control soccer because it provides popular
entertainment and often deviates attention from more political concerns, yet constitutes
a potentially powerful venue for the expression of dissent.

To achieve Vision 2030’s goals of greater Saudi competitiveness
and transparency, Prince Mohammed and the federation will have to square those
goals with dealing with the corrosive effect of political interference in the
sport, particularly by members of the ruling family. Dealing publicly with
match fixing and debt suggests the government and the federation may have taken
a first step.

1 comment:

Its good to read something like this. These days people are busy watching EURO Cup that finished few days back. Football fever is always high as knowing about your favorite sportsperson and sports is the priority of any fan and for this they can also follow any latest sport news site over internet and know in detail.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile